A group of farmers from Punjab are planning to take 1 lakh hectare land on lease in the African nation of Ethiopia for cultivation.

In the last few months, the process seems to be speeding up with more and more Indian farmers checking out investments in Africa.

Anywaa Survival Organisation's critique of the Ethiopian government's video presentation of rice land grab in the Gambela region.

Private equity firms like Rabo Equity Advisors and IL&FS Investment Managers may be in talks with Karuturi.

While some North African countries are selling land, others struggling with dry climates are starting to buy land tracts overseas and in other African nations to feed their own growing populations.

Participants denounced land grabbing and agreed to co-ordinate their efforts globally to campaign to STOP the irresponsible greedy practice by the transnational conglomerates.

If you are a small farmer in a developing country, and there is a big agricultural land investment deal going down in your neighbourhood, you could become part of it and make money in several ways, said a new UN-backed study.

"We support continued efforts to develop principles for investment in the agricultural sector undertaken by the World Bank, regional development banks, FAO, UNCTAD, and IFAD," say G8 heads of state.

Dr S. Ayyappan, Director-General of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR), calls on Indians to rent farmland in Ethiopia to produce pulses for export to India.

The Addis government shows scant regard for the potential local impact of massive Indian investment in floriculture and biofuels.

Evidence suggests a marked disparity in the benefits received by those involved in and affected by these transnational land acquisitions, particularly for those originally dwelling on the land.

Sai R Karuturi, founder and MD of Karuturi Global, says the company has acquired a very large piece of land in Ethiopia and has started agricultural production from it.

Indian tea companies, among others, are making a beeline to acquire estates in Africa. And the government is facilitating their hunt for good deals.

"Land grabbing" will be featured on the agenda of a high-level conference on the rice industry in November 2010 in Vietnam, where 17 agricultural ministers will be in attendance.

TADCO subsidiary has already arranged leases in Cambodia, Vietnam, Pakistan and the Philippines for export production of aromatic and long grain basmati rice.

This one-day multidisciplinary workshop will examine the scale of the problem and the environmental degradation, economic, social and health problems facing the Oromo people as the result of the farmland wholesale to foreign investors and will aim to formulate a consensus on how to mitigate its burden on the Oromo people.

Gulf countries investing in farmland abroad have a real opportunity to help developing countries and should rethink simply switching their investments to richer states says Dr Mahendra Shah

An economic analysis of land grabbing in 25 countries by a French securities firm. Predicts the entry of Danone, Nestlé and Unilever into the fray.

"Agricultural lands being leased by Saudis have been increasing by the day in Ethiopia," Ethiopian Consul General Tekleab Kebede says.

NCB Capital estimates that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the main buyers of African land, have acquired some 6 million acres worldwide, largely in Sudan, Pakistan and Indonesia. Other estimates are much higher.

Amid much talk about the need for "codes of conduct" to help regulate this new phenomenon, I found myself wondering whether Cecil Rhodes would have signed such a code. He probably would, and have then gone on to completely disregard it.

South Africa, which became a net importer of food two years ago after two decades of net exporting, is developing African agricultural ambitions of its own.

Most people involved in land rights issues are likely to agree that the most abusive companies (and governments) should be vigorously prosecuted using national, regional and global legal fora.

Participants agreed on the importance of an open and inclusive dialogue to continue encouraging responsible agricultural investment by various parties.

The process of buying up large swathes of farmland in foreign countries is politically sensitive, but "beggars can't be choosers" says a senior executive at a leading Middle Eastern food commodities trading firm

Rural people in several parts of Cameroon are protesting a government policy that allows the government to sell or lease vast parcels of arable land to foreign investors.

Contract covers the lease of 27,000 ha in the Regional State of Gambela for a period of 25 years, with option for renewal.

Ethiopian PM Meles Zenawi talks about the leasing of large areas of Ethiopian farmland to foreign investors during a panel on African agriculture at the World Economic Forum

When will governments recognise the immense potential of their own farmers and their sustainable, diverse family farming systems, that are so desperately in need of genuine 'responsible' agricultural investment to assure food and seed sovereignty, asks Joan Baxter

The long-term danger I foresee, in the worst case scenario, is that the debt spiral will eventually converge with the land grabs.